S.B. Divya's Blog, page 6

I am incredibly thrilled to share the news that Escape Pod is a finalist for the 2018 Hugo Awards in the category of Best Semiprozine!

Read the full list of finalists here: https://www.tor.com/2018/03/31/2018-hugo-award-finalists-announced/

Of course, I wouldn't be here with many helping hands along the way, most of all, my awesome co-editor Mur Lafferty and our tireless assistant editor, Benjamin C. Kinney, as well as all of our other staff and Escape Artists' owners.

My journey here has tak...

It's that time of year again...or maybe a little late, but better that than never, right?

If you're reading and nominating for science fiction and fantasy awards, please consider my stories from 2017. All four are eligible in the short story category.

Also, please consider the original fiction published by Escape Pod in 2017. As Assistant Editor and then Co-Editor, I am proud of every story we ran last year. Escape Pod is also eligible in the Best Semiprozine category for the Hugo Awards.

Microb...

A new year often means a fresh start - out with the old, in with the new. Several years back, I gave up on making resolutions in favor of picking a one-word theme for my year. Resolutions are usually specific and can make you feel like you're failing if you haven't kept them. A theme word, on the other hand, can impact every aspect of your life. It's more about how you live and your attitude than what you do.

Last year's word was "novel," as in, "I really want to write a novel!" but also, I wa...

Right now, three areas of the world are suffering from major natural disasters due to weather (rain in all cases). If you'd like to contribute, donating money is the best, most effective way to make sure people get the help that they need.

Sierra Leone: mudslides and flooding on August 14, 2017, destroyed parts of Freetown (the capital) and left over 1000 people dead. 

India, Bangladesh, Nepal: in an area prone to heavy rains, this year has brought unusual amounts of water and flooding. Over 12...

I'm taking a break from "F" words to tackle another that seems awfully popular lately: Diversity. Yup, that word is everywhere in the USA. You know how a word starts looking weird when you've seen it too many times? In this case, I feel like the meaning and usage have drifted so far from its origin that I can't make sense of it anymore.

I find myself appearing on lists of "diverse authors," which leave me scratching my head. If I saw "diverse author" a few years ago, I would think, "Oh, that p...

I'm taking a break from "F" words to tackle another that seems awfully popular lately: Diversity. Yup, that word is everywhere in the USA. You know how a word starts looking weird when you've seen it too many times? In this case, I feel like the meaning and usage have drifted so far from its origin that I can't make sense of it anymore.

I find myself appearing on lists of "diverse authors," which leave me scratching my head. If I saw "diverse author" a few years ago, I would think, "Oh, that p...

Who doesn't need a little help now and then? With modern life, especially if you choose to have children, some of us could use a whole lot of help. I'm talking about a natural-language-based, A.I.-driven software assistant that can help me keep track of projects, schedules, tasks, and shopping lists. 

My husband recently floated the idea of picking up an Amazon Echo or Google Home. I was skeptical about their functionality so I went searching for the best in AI personal assistants. I found thi...

Last week I did a panel discussion at the The Last Bookstore (an amazing, twisty, and wonderful independent book shop in Downtown Los Angeles) with three others on Writing Relevant Speculative Fiction. Their blog also hosted an interview with Carrie Patel and myself as a sneak preview so if you missed the live version, you can read some of our thoughts here.

http://dwarfandgiant.com/direandwonderful/

I received my author copy of this anthology, and I can't wait to read it! All of the stories are originals. Mine is about a colonist to Mars who needs to decide if she's running from her past or toward her future.

"Follow twenty-three science fiction and fantasy authors on their journeys through Asia and beyond. Stories that explore magic and science. Stories about love, revenge, and choices. Stories that challenge ideas about race, belonging, and politics. Stories about wh...

Here's a bit of interesting news regarding a human-machine interface from MIT: Brain-controlled Robots.

A new system from MIT CSAIL uses EEG brain signals to detect if a person notices robots making a mistake.

They're a long way from a symbiotic relationship between humans and machines, but this is a good start down that path. This technology strikes me as a clever way to train your robot without the need to sort your dataset up front. The EEG methodology is crude and requires its own custom...